(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a light emitting element, a light emitting element array, an optical writing head, and an image forming apparatus.
(ii) Related Art
Surface emitting element arrays are used in contact image sensors and writing heads of printers and the like. A typical surface emitting element array is implemented by integrating a linear array of light emitting elements on a single substrate. Typical examples of surface emitting elements include light-emitting diodes (LEDs), light-emitting thyristors, and laser diodes. Among them, light-emitting thyristors are devices having a pnpn structure in which compound semiconductor layers such as GaAs or AlGaAs layers are stacked and in which a driving current is applied to a gate to cause a current to flow between an anode and cathode to emit light.